[snip]
> My family story goes that my ancestor Johannes Luhung Behner (born abt
> 1795) and his wife Sara Koenigh (born abt 1795) were either a governor
> or brewmeister. They had eight children, of which two of them
> immigrated to Liverpool Township, Medina County, Ohio USA in 1833.

I'd go with "brauermeister" a master brewer.

> I really want to contact the town to confirm these records and
> possibly try to understand why their 2nd oldest son Johannes Behner
> (born 1815) and 3rd oldest son Gottlieb Fridrich Behner (born 1818)
> immigrated with their cousin John G Behner (born 1807) and his wife
> Catharina (born 1809) who was pregnant with their first child, Jacob
> Behner (b 1833).

I doubt you would get any information that you are looking for from the
town. Especially not why two sons emigrated. Check out the 8 volumes of The
Wuerttemberg Emigration Index. If they asked for permission to emigrate you
will find some information on the family and how much money they had in
those papers. You will have to check all 8 volumes. This is not the same as
the Emigration list on Hauptstaats Archive web site. You should check it as
well because if they didn't ask for permission you may find them on this
list. Check out the Archive for the B-W Maile list for a complete discussion
of this site.

> I've been told that the best place to find information is in the main
> archives in Stuttgart, per the Minister of the Interior. I received a
> reply email back from a Braunn at the National Archives of
> Baden-Wuerttemberg.
> Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
> Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
> Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 4
> 70173 Stuttgart
> Tel. +49 (0)711/212-4335
> Fax +49 (0)711/212-4360
> email:

This archive would not have the records you are looking for except they do
have the on-line list that you can get on your computer here. There are
other records that may be found but they are civil records and I believe the
vital records, birth, death, marriage would be found in a local archive.

> He suggested I contact the public records at Ludwigsburg, Public
> Records at Sigmaringen, and the church archives at Stuttgart. So going
> to try those next.

The Ludwigsburg Archive has the emigration records (Permission to Emigrate)
that you can get through the LDS on microfilm. The above set of books I
recommended will give you the film number if there are records for them.
This set of books is an index to these Ludwigsburg records.

I know nothing about the Sigmaringen records.

The Church archives at Stuttgart are no longer at the Ganseheide street
address. If you decided you need it let me know and I'll look it up. It is
now in one of the suburbs. The will do research for you. I believe you will
find the terms on their web-site. There is a charge and they will be
searching the same microfilm that you can get from the LDS through a Family
History Center near you, it will be much cheaper.

> I'm attempting to request information on my Behner ancesters who
> emmigrated to Medina Couty, Ohio, US in 1833 (my family history only
> indicates the two individuals with [X] emmigrated in 1833). They were
> all christened in Evangelisch (church), Graefenhausen,
> Schwarzwaldkreis, Wuerttemberg which I'm assuming must be their
> hometown.

Oh, oh, you have a probelm here. The top or you messages says you are
looking for Grafenhausen. Here you say you found them in Graefenhausen.
Those are two entirely different names. An umlaut in a name makes as much
difference as a completely different letter.

You say you found this on the IGI. Go back and look for the source, if it
has been abstracted from Graefenhausen church records it will give you the
number of the microfilm and you can send for that film and get all the
information on your family if it is indeed your family. It is certainly
worth a try and will be much cheaper than any other way.

One last thing. Do some reading about the history of that area and it will
help you to understand why they may have emigrated. The most popular answers
you will hear are religious persecution and conscription but don't believer
everything you hear. From what I have read in this area the main problem was
the inability to make a living. Times were very hard. Wuerttemberg had
partible inheritance and by the time a small property has been divided
enough times there is not enough left for a person to make a living. Let us
also not forget the pull of the unknown and adventure. At that period there
were active recruiters trying to influence people to emigrate. It of course
is possible that some didn't want to serve but everyone did not serve just
as all young men in the US had to sign up for conscription but all were not
called.

I tried the LDS library catalog but it is not working tonight. But I would
check out the source for you IGI information and use that film unless it
says it was sent in by someone.